is
blood rushing into his face, when the King interrupted him.

"Peace! angry lords," said the King, "and remember in whose presence you
stand. And you, my Lord of Douglas, tell us, if you can, the cause of
this mutiny, and why your followers, whose general good services we are
most willing to acknowledge, were thus active in private brawl."

"I obey, my lord," said Douglas, slightly stooping a head that seldom
bent. "I was passing from my lodgings in the Carthusian convent, through
the High Street of Perth, with a few of my ordinary retinue, when I
beheld some of the baser sort of citizens crowding around the Cross,
against which there was nailed this placard, and that which accompanies
it."

He took from a pocket in the bosom of his buff coat a human hand and a
piece of parchment. The King was shocked and agitated.

"Read," he said, "good father prior, and let that ghastly spectacle be
removed."

The prior read a placard to the following purpose:

"Inasmuch as the house of a citizen of Perth was assaulted last night,
being St. Valentine's Eve, by a sort of disorderly night walkers,
belonging to some company of the strangers now resident in the Fair
City; and whereas this hand was struck from one of the lawless limmers
in the fray that ensued, the provost and magistrates have directed that
it should be nailed to the Cross, in scorn and contempt of those by whom
such brawl was occasioned. And if any one of knightly degree shall say
that this our act is wrongfully done, I, Patrick Charteris of Kinfauns,
knight, will justify this cartel in knightly weapons, within the
barrace; or, if any one of meaner birth shall deny what is here said, he
shall be met with by a citizen of the Fair City of Perth, according to
his degree. And so God and St. John protect the Fair City!"

"You will not wonder, my lord," resumed Douglas, "that, when my almoner
had read to me the contents of so insolent a scroll, I caused one of
my squires to pluck down a trophy so disgraceful to the chivalry and
nobility of Scotland. Where upon, it seems some of these saucy burghers
took license to hoot and insult the hindmost of my train, who wheeled
their horses on them, and would soon have settled the feud, but for
my positive command that they should follow me in as much peace as the
rascally vulgar would permit. And thus they arrived here in the guise
of flying men, when, with my command to repel force by force, they might
have set fire to the fo